In recent years, mechanical instruments for surgical use; e.g., joining tissue, closing vessels, manipulating tissue, cutting tissue, etc. have been developed. Many of these instruments are of substantial size or bulk and have some weight.
A typical package for packaging surgical products or devices in a sterile manner are heat sealed packages. These are peelable packages comprising two layers of paper, film, nonwoven fabric or combinations thereof which are generally sealed about their periphery to join them together with the surgical product disposed between the layers. Usually, the heat seal will not extend to the outer edge of the layers along one side thereof so that the layer may be readily grasped and the layers peeled apart. Such packages have gained wide acceptance because of their ease of sterilizability, their low cost and their ease of use and opening.
With the advent of the bulk or heavier instruments, it has become difficult to package such instruments in these inexpensive heat sealable packages. The instrument will tend to move around within the package during shipping and handling of the package and may well disrupt the heat seal and compromise the sterility of the instrument. A number of techniques have been developed to overcome these problems such as putting some type of stiffened insert in the heat sealed package or providing a thermal formed tray in which the instrument fits to stabilize the instrument within the package. However, such techniques cause other problems in that the package insert is usually a thin stiff member, which on movement may disrupt the heat seal. Also, the thermal formed member usually has a thin flange extending from either its upper or lower surface which if the thermal formed member moves within the heat sealed package during handling and transportation, can disrupt the heat seal and compromise the sterility of the package.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a package wherein the instrument is stabilized within the package during handling or shipping. It is another object of the present invention to provide a package which reduces the possibility of the heat seal being disrupted and the sterility of the instrument compromised during handling or shipping of the package.